Saturday, June 04, 2011

Does the end of 100 Days mean trouble for Nouri?

Aswat al-Iraq reports Iraqi youth activists met up in Istanbul today with Ayad Al-Zamili, who heads the conference's organizing committee, stating this "is the first of its kind since the outburst of popular protest in Iraq last February." He further stated that the meet-up was not held in Iraq "due to the security deterioration and governmental arrests for a number of activists during the past period, we had to meet in Turkey. We do not have the intention to establish a party of political organization, but only to unify efforts on a road map for their movement, to be added to that of the Iraqi people, after the end of the 100 Days set by Maliki, that ends on 7 of this month to achieve the promised reforms demanded by the Iraqi people." June 7th ends the 100 Days. Dar Addustour quotes al-Zamili stating the conference is about imporving cooperationg between the groups and the youth activists and the media as well addressing oragnization techniques and messaging. He notes that the security conditions in Baghdad have only worsened and that they are hoping to develop a road map for future actions via the conference. At the meet-up, Aswat al-Iraq also reports, the activists explored "Suing Premier Nouri al-Maliki's government at the International Criminal Court in the Hague for violating human rights, freedom of expression, peaceful demonstrations and the Geneva Convention."

David Ali (Al Mada) notes that the activists are considering filing a complaint with the ICC specifically about the arrest of four activists in Baghdad two Fridays ago and calling for their release. The activists state that charges against them (fake i.d.s) are fraudulent and that the activists should be immediately freed. Meanwhile Nouri has issued an order that there will be no protests next Friday in Baghdad's Tahrir Square.

With the 100 days coming to an end June 7th, Nouri doesn't want the world to see just what a failure he is and just how unpopular he is. Fortunately, so very much of the foreign press in Iraq (that includes the US) have been happy to ignore the ongoing months of protest in order to assist Nouri -- the US Embassy prevails over a free press apparently.

Among the things Nouri was supposed to be addressing in the 100 Days (called in an attempt to defocus attention on the protests and to buy time for Nouri) was the lack of jobs. Al Mada notes that while the official unemployment rates is 15% (a high number itself), the actual unemployment number is probably 30%. Mohammed Tawfeeq and Chelsea J. Carter (CNN) report on the impending end of the 100 Days and note what's taking place as the end arrives:

But activists and a leading human rights group accused al-Maliki's government of a campaign of intimidation against protest organizers ahead of the deadline, even as an Iraqi government spokesman announced a news conference to showcase improvements.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Friday in Baghdad's Tahrir Square to demand the release of four protest organizers -- Jihad Jalil, Ali al-Jaf, Mouyed Faisal and Ahmed Al-Baghdadi -- who were detained during a protest at the same location a week earlier.
Carrying banners that featured pictures of the four organizers, demonstrators chanted: "Oh Maliki, don't muzzle the voice of the people/oh Maliki, release the four immediately."


The 100 Days were also supposed to see an improvement in the security situation. That didn't take place either. Alsumaria TV reports, "Iraqi Parliament Speaker Ousama Al Nujaifi believes that the recurrence of bombings in Iraq without control is a clear sign on the failure to manage security in the country and an indicator on the major downfall in the performance of security forces." Reuters notes that today's violence included a Falluja roadside bombing and the Baghdad assassination of Lt Col Mohammed Karim.

Meanwhile Nouri insists, Dar Addustour reports, that any failures are the responsibility of everyone and not just his -- but who is prime minister and who dug in his heels and violated the Constitution to remain that? Al Sabaah reports on a protest in Basra that began after dark and in response to the continued deterioration in the electricity services.


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Adam Kokesh's successful Dance Party

adam


Today Adam Kokesh's Thomas Jefferson Memorial Dance Party was held. People came to DC from various states -- including California and South Carolina -- to dance for liberty and there were no arrests or incidents of police violence. (Adam Kokesh is pictured above, screen snap of the Russia Today report here.)

The Dance Party was in response to what took place last weekend. Scott Simon (NPR) writes of last weekend, "It is painful to watch the video taken by one of the dancers. They do not cease and desist when the police order them to stop dancing. The officers subdue them by squishing them on hard marble floors to clap them into handcuffs." It's apparently "painful" to write about as well since Scott Simon can only manage that the Park Police were "squishing them on hard marble floors" -- Adam Kokesh was body slammed onto the marble. The police officer picked Adam off the ground, lifted him into the air and slammed him down on the marble floor. Is "squish" even a damn verb? NPR's going to let Scott Simon make an ass out of the English language as well as out of NPR?

It was police brutality, pure and simple. If you don't have the guts to acknowledge that fact when you're watching the video of last week, you're really not up to pretending you're a 'reporter' anymore. If you sense of honesty or your own visual sense is so corrupted that you can watch that video and not clearly label it what it is (police brutality), then you've got not business ever again reporting because there's a huge problem -- maybe it's your judgment, maybe it's your senses, maybe it's your courage. But something has failed you and you need to inform your employers.

As the Associated Press notes, "Videos posted online show an officer with his hands around a protester’s throat. A demonstrator is also shown being slammed to the ground." If they're referring to the choke-hold, that was also done to Adam. See screen snap of Adam discussing the incident in front of footage of it on Adam's RT show Adam v. The Man.

kokesh

Maybe the 'squishy' isn't the actions of the police but the cowardice of NPR for refusing to call out what is obvious to the eye?

An e-mail asked why I had focused on Adam as opposed to another male and then the e-mailer concluded, "Because you love Adam Kokesh." Actually, the reason I'm not focusing on the other one is I don't think there's a legal case. It's not as strong. (I'm not referring to Medea and Tighe.) In that instance, a man goes down and the police (one police officer) is involved in the incident.

However, so is another dancer. And the man who is taken down is taken down by the police officer and that other dancer. I have no idea what the other man was doing -- I think he was trying to link arms with the first man. (A fairly common move in protests when the police begin arresting.) But the other man doesn't help the first man with his actions and at least some of the yelling in pain from the first man appears possibly due to the other man's actions.

I've focused on Adam because it is very clear who is doing the violence (the police officer). I've ignored the other one because that second man ("the other man") muddies things up and I believe, watching the video (I wasn't present), a case can be made that police come over to that altercation to pull that "other man" away from the first man who is clearly in pain. I think, my opinion, a jury watching the video of that aspect of the incident would state that the other man contributed to any injury, inserted himself into something and his actions caused the first man pain and injury.

Is that what happened? I don't know. But, on video, that's how it would likely look to a jury. We focused on Adam because what the police did there was police brutality. I'm not going to waste my time attempting to raise awareness on a murky issue. The treatment of Adam is clear and it's the strongest case.

UPI has a photo of today's dancers here (photo by Kevin Dietsch). The Washington Post offers a photo of Bill O'Leary here. WTOP offers a photo gallery with four photos and a text report which includes a quote from participant Shaun Haugh, "The idea that you can't dance where you want to is something that would have driven him crazy."

Emily Babay (Washington Examiner) reports
they "skipped, swayed and shimmied" and that "U.S. Park Police officer cleared dozens from the memoria's rotunda and pushed the demonstrators to the memorial's steps, but no one was taken into custody." Tim Persinko (NBC Washington, link has text, photos and videos) reports:


[NBC Washington's] Tom Sherwood said most of the law enforcement was keeping a low profile, except for one officer, who stood watch carrying an assault rifle.
The dance party drew hundreds of spectators and dozens of dancers.
Police asked the gathered crowd to clear the rotunda shortly after 12 p.m, but around 20 remained, including a man wearing an oversized Thomas Jefferson head. Those who stayed inside the memorial boogied in front of Thomas Jefferson's statue, as the crowd chanted "TJ, TJ."

Three things on the above. Actually, four -- the man in the Jefferson head was Tighe Barry. Now to the three points.

1) Spectators? Adam clearly made the invitation to inside the Memorial for dancing and for those who were afraid -- due to last weekend's police violence -- to take part in dancing on the steps. I'm not sure how you'd count the participants outside the rotunda.

2) But I do see the press trying to (rightly) draw the line between participants and observers. In other words, if you danced, you were a participant. If you were an onlooker, you weren't. It's a very basic point and reality but one that US reporters and 'reporters' in Iraq willfully and willingly ignored to inflate the number participating in the march through the Sadr City section of Baghdad -- the march staged by Moqtada -- creating a false impression that's been wrongly picked by so many in the US [see "The teen idol demise of Moqtada al-Sadr (though the press keeps the home fires burning)" for more on the press drool over Moqtada's staged 'happening'.]


3) Stood watch with an assault rifle? Isn't that sort of over-reaction how we end up with, for example, the Kent State massacre? What a charming way for the Park Police to honor freedom and democracy and Thomas Jefferson . . . with an assault rifle at the ready to take down any dancers . . . forever.

Steven Nelson (Daily Caller) describes the "assault rifle" as a "machine gun." He also reports:

At noon, a crowd assembled on the steps to the monument, then entered the hall and circled the statue of Thomas Jefferson. A substantial number of reporters and photographers watched.
*Police closed the Jefferson Memorial slightly before 1 p.m. Saturday and ushered out a crowd that was challenging a ban on dancing inside the monument.*
No efforts were made to arrest the large group of dancers, but after a half hour, police announced that they were closing the monument and began to usher people to the exit.
As the monument was cleared of participants and press alike, several people remained, dancing gleefully in front of SWAT team members who had arrived.

That's all from Nelson's report but I've put an earlier sentence into the excerpt (the earlier sentence is set off with "*"s at the start and at the close).

I find it very interesting that The Daily Caller can report on today's event and has reported on what took place last weekend but The Progressive, The Nation, etc. all ignored what took place last weekend.


Russia TV reported on it. Video below and a partial transcript after it.




Gayane Chichakyan: Well this is what I saw, the crowd was dispersed, sort of pushed out of the Jefferson Memorial but dozens of people risked being arrested for just peacefully dancing at the memorial. Everyone had this fear that it could happen at any time. To many, it sounded like a joke in a country that preaches freedoms. You know, the First Amendment to the US Constitution explicitly protects freedom of assembly and actions that symbolically express a viewpoint if those actions are not harming anybody. And one could think, "What could be more harmless than dancing?" People who took part in this dance for freedom flashmob say they do it to remind of their Constitutional rights which they claim are being breached. Recently, there was a court decision specifically regarding the Thomas Jefferson Memorial that prohibited dancing there. That's what triggered the movement, if you will. Last week, a small group of people protested the decision with a silent dance at the Memorial, they were brutally arrested. One of them was an Iraq War veteran, civil rights activist Adam Kokesh who, as recently, also has his own show on RT. Just a week later, thousands of people, after the arrest, in different cities, by the way -- not just Washington, DC -- joined him and others to say no to police brutality. Take a listen.

Adam Kokesh: After everything else, after all the violations of our Constitution, after the trashing of the economy, after everybody who has suffered in this country under the bootheel of the police state, it's come down to dancing. If that's the only freedom we have left, we're going to come and enjoy it.

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Friday, June 03, 2011

Iraq snapshot

Friday, June 3, 2011.  Chaos and violence continue, Iraq is slammed by bombings, activists demonstrate in Baghdad's Tahrir Square despite intimidation efforts by security forces, Adam Kokesh gears up for his dance party, and more.
 
Iraq War veteran Adam Kokesh holds the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Dance Party tomorrow at noon. Young Americans for Liberty (a continuation of 2008's Students for Ron Paul) picks Adam Kokesh as their Rebel Of The Week.  John McKenna explains, "Dancing, even if you are the worst dancer known to man, is a free act of expression, which I'm pretty sure is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Banning it as a 'dmonstration' is bad enough, but the Gestapo-like reactions of the Park Rangers was beyond unnecessary." What is McKenna talking about?   On last night's Adam vs. the Man, Adam spoke with Medea Benjamin and Tighe Barry and, in a column, Medea explains what happened last weekend:


It was Memorial Day weekend. My partner Tighe Barry and I were on our way to New York, but we decided to make a quick trip to the Memorial to support the dancers. When we got there, two park policemen were talking to the group. We moved closer to hear what they were saying and overheard someone ask the police how they define dancing. Tighe put his arms around my waist and started swaying, illustrating how hard it is to define what, precisely, is dancing.
Suddenly, to our utter amazement, we were set upon by the police. They yanked us apart, handcuffed us and shoved us on the ground. That's when three members of the group put on their headsets and started boogying. The police went wild, bodyslamming, chokeholding, and jumping on top of them. The police cleared out the entire Memorial as if they were protecting the tourists from some kind of terrorist threat, then threw us in a paddywagon and hauled us off to jail. Three hours later, after mug shots and fingerprinting, we were charged with "dancing in a restricted area" and cited to come back to court.

Adam got the body slam, the choke hold and the arrest for the 'crime' of rhythmic movement.  He is fighting back and there will be a Dance Party at the Jefferson Memorial this Saturday at noon. More information can be found at RT's Adam vs. the Man. Especially refer to Wednesday's broadcast. In addition to Adam's program, you can also find out information at this Facebook page on the event and on solidarity events taking place around the world.
 
May 11th, Senator Patty Murray, Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, held a press conference to explain Hiring Heroes Act of 2011, a Senate bill to assist veterans with employment.  Among the things that the bill would do:
* Makes participation in the Transition Assistance Program mandatory for separating servicemembers;
* Requires that each servicemember receive an individualized assessment of jobs they may qualify for when they participate in the Transition Assistance Program;
 
Transition Assistance Program (TAP) is supposed to help service members transitioning to veteran status with a number of issues that will come up in the civilian world such as how to market skills.  "TAP is a program," US House Rep Marlin Stutzman declared yesterday,  "that is supposed to help discharging veterans transition from the military into civilian careers.  VA also has a portion of TAP where they educate the servicemembers on the multitude of services that are available to them once they become veterans."
 
Stutzman is the Chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity which was holding a hearing on TAP. The first panel was composed of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America's Marco Reininger and AMVETS' Christina Roof.  Excerpt.
 
 
Subcommittee Chair Marlin Stutzman:  I do have a couple of questions for both of you.  You mentioned the figure of 45% of service members attend TAP.  Is that for all branches? Am I wrong in that the Marines do require, it is mandatory for their service members to attend TAP before they are discharged? And do we know if their percentages are any higher than the other branches?
 
Christina Roof: When I spoke with Marine Corps officials last week, I was told it is mandatory that their Marines complete the TAP program. I was also told there were some exceptions, of course, you know, like critical injuries involved and so on.  But I was told last week that it is mandatory that all their Marines complete TAP before their service discharge. 
 
Subcommittee Chair: Marlin Stutzman:  So that's with no exceptions?  Every Marine coming out does -- has completed TAP or . . .
 
Christina Roof: Again, I can only go on what they told me which was, it is mandatory which I think is a great idea that should be across the board.  I can't speak, again, to each individual case but it seems like they are enforcing it.
 
Subcommittee Chair Marlin Stutzman:  So would the 45% number have Marines in that percentage? Or do we not know more of -- the demographics or --
 
Christina Roof: I'll let my colleague, I think that was his number.
 
Marco Reininger:  Sir, if I may, I'm not 100% sure whether or not this number includes the Marine Corps but I believe that making it mandatory DoD wide would be the right solution here.  That same survey indicated that many veterans didn't attend the TAP program where TAP courses were offered because it had a reputation of being redundant, not really useful for making a successful transition.  And, in some cases even, commanding officers wouldn't let them go.  This is what they say, again, this is what the survey indicated.  So mandating it DoD wide for all service branches would be the right answer here, sir.  And, of course, along with that comes having to overhaul the program so that it actually works and makes sense for people to actually attend.
 
[. . .]
 
 
Ranking Member Bruce Braley: Let me ask you this basic question.  Isn't it true that the Department of Defense could make these programs mandatory, across the board right now without any further action by Congress if they wanted to?  [They nod their heads.]  That was a "yes" from both of you.
 
Marco Reininger:  Yes, sir, absolutely, the executive branch could order this to be mandatory and that would most likely be the end of it as far as I understand the process.
 
At Third last month in "Hiring Heroes Act of 2011," we noted our support for Senator Patty Murray's bill including the mandatory aspect of TAP:
 
We think it has to be mandatory to be successful and we feel that way based on the many stories shared with us and those shared in public about returning service members. How you're gathered in a large group and told there's help available if you have 'emotional' problems, but nobody has 'emotional' problems, right? In other words, the VA's been able to avoid issues like PTSD by demonizing and ridiculing them when they should be providing treatment.

We can see something similar happening with the military's job skills training program. Wait. See it happening? It's already happening which is why Murray could state, in the news conference, "Today, nearly one-third of those leaving the Army don't get this training."

There are a lot of programs the military offers. There's a real problem getting the word out. In some instances, such as PTSD, it's hard to draw any conclusion either than the military wants to keep the numbers down. Making the program mandatory means it falls back on superiors if veterans aren't getting access to these programs.
Making it mandatory does make superiors answerable if TAP isn't attended.  Why wasn't it attended?  Why didn't you ensure that ___ attended it?  Did you not understand it was mandatory and your role in this was to ensure that it happened? 
 
Back to the Subcommittee hearing.  The second panel was composed of VA's Thomas Pamperin, Ruth A. Fanning, Dept of Labor's Ramond Jefferson and DoD's Philip A. Burdette and Brig Gen Robert Hedelund.  Staying with the topic of TAP, we'll note this exchange.
 
Subcommittee Chair Marlin Stutzman:  General Hedelund, my question is with the Marine Corps policy that requires TAP, have you seen any negative effects? And how does the Corps enforce mandatory attendance?
 
Brig Gen Robert Hedelund: Yes, sir.  Thank you for that question.  First, no.  No operational impacts by requiring Marines to go to mandatory TAP.  As I mentioned in my opening statement, our goal is to make this mandatory requirement almost OBE because people will figure out this is something they need and want. That said, some of the discussion earlier from the first panel is relevant in that it is a bit of a leadership issue. Let's not forget that this event does not happen in a vacuum. And that's part of the issue right now with TAP is that it's a one-shot deal. And where it falls on a Marine's timeline to get out of the Marine Corps sometimes is convenient, sometimes not so much.
 
Now we'll note another hearing this week (I didn't attend this hearing) via press coverage. Jane Cowan reports on PM (Australia's ABC -- link includes text and audio) about the Wednesday House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing.
 
JANE COWAN: In a report to Congress in the middle of last year the Pentagon said Iraq's security forces would continue to rely on US support to meet and maintain minimum standards. In March this year the US Senate heard there would be "loose ends" unless the Iraqis asked America to stay on. This is how the Democratic congressman Gary Ackerman puts it:

GARY ACKERMAN: Iraq seems to have been a marriage of convenience. Everybody seems to agree that there should be some kind of a divorce but when? And everybody thought that we were waiting for the final papers to come through and now we seem to have some remorse about that. Maybe we're sticking around for the sake of the children, and now they're all saying we should leave, although they really mean we should stay but we ain't staying unless they ask us it seems like a mess. I don't know how you explain that to the civilian population that's going to be asked to pay for child support.

JANE COWAN: The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had been saying for months he'll stand by the deal but recently did a turnaround, saying he'd support keeping some troops beyond the deadline if he can get most of the country's politicians to agree.
Sophie Quinton (National Journal) adds, "Testifying experts stressed that the United States is expected to continue to influence Iraq by civilian means. The State Department is scheduled to take the lead role in supporting Iraq's security, political, and economic development in October 2011, and the U.S. Agency for International Development will continue its capacity-building efforts."   Quinton quotes the State Dept's Patricia Haslach (Iraq Transition Coordinator) telling the Subcommittee, "We're not done. We have no intention of leaving Iraq." John T. Bennett (The Hill) emphasizes US House Rep Gary Ackerman's remarks:
 
"Most Americans believe we're done in Iraq," said Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Middle East and South Asia subcommittee. "That is at odds with the reality in Iraq.
"The American people thought they had already bought this and paid for this," Ackerman said. "That appears to not be the case."
So, too, did members of Congress.
That means the White House soon will have to start "selling a lot of members," Ackerman said, predicting that the "collision" of reality and lawmakers' desires "will not be pretty."
 
The Great Iraqi Revolution notes, "Informed sources in PM Maliki's Office: confirm news that the press has been buzzing with : Maliki has formed a secret committee with his direct oversight to complete the secret discussions with the Americans about the second security agreement." In related news, John R. Parkinson (ABC News) reports that Speaker of the House John Boehner has siad Barack Obama needs to "step up and help the American understand why these missions are vital to the nationaal security interest of our country. [. . .] I really do believe that the president needs to speak out, in terms of our mission in Afghanistan, our mission in Iraq, our mission in Libya, and the doubts that our members have frankly reflected they're reflecting what they're heaing from their constituents." 
 
Iraq was slammed with bombings today.  Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) reports, "Seventeen people were killed and 50 others wounded in a blast from a container full of explosives left outside of the Presidential Palaces Mosque in central Tikrit, Iraq, officials told CNN.  That was followed in the evening by another explosion when a suicide bomber wearing an explosives vest enetered a Tikrit hospital treating the wounded, Iraq interior ministry officials told CNN.  Six people died and 10 were wounded at the hospital in the second attack." On the mosque bombing, BBC News notes, "Some reports suggest the bomb was hidden inside a fuel canister at the entrance to the mosque."  AP explains, "The mosque was inside a government-controlled compound where many officials live, and most in attendance were security or government employees."   Muhanned Saif Aldin and Tim Craig (Washington Post) quote MP Jamal Algilani stating of the government out of Baghdad, "The procedures that they are following don't meet the size of the responsibility that they are in charge of."   Michael S. Schmidt (New York Times) quotes provincial counil member Hussein al-Shatub stating, "I don't know how they were able to put these explosives in such a secure area. I was at the main gate of mosque on my way to pray when the explosion occurred.  I started evacuating injured people to the hospital.  It was a huge explosion."  Al Jazeera adds, "Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh, reporting from Baghdad, quoting government sources, said, 'Significantly, the compound houses the governor, police command and several other security directorates'." Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) offers one government response to the bombings, "Friday's explosions came less than 24 hours after four explosions hit another predominantly Sunni Muslim city, Ramadi, on Thursday night, killing five and injuring 27. Residents of Tikrit said that authorities had imposed a curfew until further notice."

Today was truly a violent day in Iraq and not the day for the US State Dept to issue a release promoting business in Iraq that opens with one bad lie after another until it sinks under its own spin:
 
Iraq today is emerging from years of civil conflict and economic isolation, and has the potential to again become what it was not so long ago: a prosperous country with a thriving middle class. Iraq is a market with tremendous potential.
  • By many estimates, Iraq has the world's third-largest oil reserves, and plans to explore for additional reserves.
  • Iraq's population is estimated at around 30 million, among the largest in the region, and is projected to grow more than two percent annually over the next five years.
  • According to the Iraqi government's National Development Plan, the government has plans to spend $100 billion of its own money on thousands of reconstruction and development projects over the next four years.
In recent years, there are a number of tangible signs that Iraq's economy is stabilizing and expanding:
  • Iraq's economy averaged an estimated 4.5 percent real growth over the past four years;
  • Oil production has increased an estimated 22 percent since 2005, and oil exports have increased an estimated 58 percent over the same period;
  • Consumer prices have stabilized, with single-digit inflation over the past three years after more than 50 percent inflation in 2006;
  • The Iraqi government has spent more than US $20 billion on reconstruction and investment projects each of the last two years.
The economic sectors in Iraq with the greatest investment potential include: energy, including both hydrocarbons and the electrical power sector; infrastructure such as architecture, construction, and engineering and transportation; information and communications technology; health such as medical technology, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and health care services; and agribusiness.
 
We'll come back to the State Dept's embarrassing days but you'll notice the release ignores the issue of unemployment.  That issue, the lack of jobs, has been among the reasons Iraqis have been protesting.
 
Youth activists and others (including The Great Iraqi Revolution community) gathered in Baghdad's Tahrir Square to honor the detainees lost in the so-called 'justice' system in Iraq. People whose families have no idea where they are or if they are still alive. And, specifically, to show solidarity with the four arrested last Friday. Last Friday was "False Promises Friday." The Great Iraqi Revolution noted the four arrested: "THE 4 YOUNG ACTIVISTS WHO WERE ARRESTED TODAY BY QASSIM ATTA AND TAKEN TO A PLACE UNKNOWN - 27.5.2011 - THEIR NAMES ARE: JIHAD JALEEL, ALI ABDUL KHALIQ, MOUAYED AL TAYEB AND AHMED AL BAGHDADI. We pray God to have them released very soon." 

They also noted of last Friday's Baghdad protest -- or in response to it, a smear campaign is being launched on TV, "In the serial of attempting to bad mouth and blacken the Tahrir Square protestors and demonstrators, Qassim Atta and the Iraqiya air photos of one of the detained activists in the Protests and accuse him of several crimes, they then proceed to air a film of a crime whose perpetrators are known to all and sundry, and in the same film some hooded men are heard to accuse that the activist is the person who committed the crime!" And the assault on protesters continued Saturday. Aswat al-Iraq reported:


An eye witness said that a military force raided an NGO, known as Where is My Right, and arrested 11 persons, including its secretary general, in suspicion for their relationship with the organizers of Tahreer Square demonstrations.
"Four Hummer military vehicles and two 4-wheel drive cars surrounded the organization premises in Maidan Square, in the center of Baghdad, where they searched it and destroyed its computers," the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
On the other hand, an activist said on the Facebook page for the Tahreer Square demonstrations, that the organization is an NGO that participated in organizing the demonstrations.
The arrested persons were meeting to discuss how to release the four activists who were arrested last Friday.


Yesterday Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both issued statements decrying the government crackdown on protest and free speech in Iraq. Today The Great Iraqi Revolution offers audio of a song and notes, "Today, all of Iraq is a Revolution Battlefield."

On the four arrrested last Friday, Raheem Salman and Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) speak with the families of the activists and one of the fathers tells the reporters, "I know about Ahmed that he loves his country, he loves freedom. I don't know where to go, whom to ask. Are our sons really criminals? .... Even if they have fake identities, why can't we see them? This is not a threat to the state's security."  Meanwhile Jack Healy and Michael S. Schmidt (New York Times) note, "Rights groups said the people detained had been denied access to lawyers and visits with their families, and criticized the arrests as a ploy to stifle any dissent in the streets, even if it was peaceful and relatively low-key."

The Great Iraqi Revolution reports, "Our Correspondent in Baghdad: Government Intelligence officers in plain clothes seriously assaulted members of the press on FALSE PROMISE FRIDAY and particularly Russia Today Channel crew, Diyar Channel and Al Ain, attacking them with knives resulting in the very serious injury of the Diyar correspondent and the theft of 4 cameras as well as the smashing up of the Rasheed Channel camera." and "Our Correspondent in Baghdad: Very heavy deployment of government security forces in Baghdad and heavy deployment of SWAT on Mohammed Al Qassim Highway.Alsumaria TV also notes that "Iraqi security forces massed up."
 
Turning to the political scene where everything's fallen apart over Nouri al-Maliki's refusal to keep his word and honor the Erbil Agreement (that agreement allowed the stalemate regarding selecting a prime minister and Parliament holding sessions to end by having the various political blocs agree on key issues and positions). Earlier this week, Iraqiya walked out on the process (Iraqiya was the political slate that won the most votes and the most seats in Parliament).  UPI notes, "Iraqiya announced it was standing on the sidelines until Maliki's State of Law coalition met a series of demands. Iraqiya in its demands called for an end to 'security violations' in the country, partnerships in security and human rights and the approval of the Sunni-backed slate's list for top defense positions, the Voices of Iraq new agency reports."  Aswat al-Iraq notes that Iraq's Sunni Vice President and Iraqiya member Tariq al-Hashimi issued a statement declaring Nouri "has no solution to the present crisis except fleeing from political forces by his weak promises.  Maliki will not be able to achieve the national partnership, because he is eager for the (necessity leader) idea." al-Hashimi is calling for new elections. And  Alsumaria TV reports, ""Head of the Islamic Supreme Council Sayyed Ammar Al Hakim believes that blaming the current downfalls in Iraq on national partnership is wrong, a source told Alsumaria. The present situation relies on partnership between the weak not between the strong and competent, Al Hakim argued." 

And as that debate continues, back to a US government embarrassment.  Eli Lake (Washington Times) reports on an emerging scandal involving the US State Dept and your right to know:

The State Department is blocking inspectors from the U.S. government's independent auditor for Iraqi reconstruction from conducting an assessment of the department's multibillion-dollar effort to train Iraq's police.

Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, discussed the standoff with the State Department in an interview this week.

"We have a long history of auditing the police training in Iraq," Mr. Bowen said. "It is simply a misapprehension to conclude that our jurisdiction only applies to bricks-and-mortar reconstruction. To the contrary, Congress has charged us with overseeing the expenditure of funds in Iraq."
 
Moving to the US, one of the perks of being friends with a strangely influential person in the antiwar movement is apparently that you don't get called out.  So a CIA/former CIA/something gets to brag how groovy Robert Gates is an Robert Gates gets years and years of cover.  Donald Rumsfeld didn't.  But Robert Gates has managed to be the Secretary of Defense under two different administrations.  Yet somehow, he doesn't get called out.  As Mike recently pointed out, when CIA Ray McGovern wanted attention and attempted to disrupt Hillary Clinton's speech, he insisted it was just like what he'd done with Rumsfeld.  No, it wasn't.  Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense.  Over the war.  But a special, loving friendship appeared to prevent McGovern from protesting Gates. And surprisingly, Gates hasn't been held accountable by the left for anything throughout his tenure -- despite his Iran-Contra history.  Gates is on his never-ending Love Me tour.  The War Hawk has paired up twice this week with War Pimp Robert Siegel.  The day (Feb. 5, 2003) Colin Powell, then-US Secretary of State, went to the United Nations to lie (what Collie calls the "blot" on his record), Robert Siegel hailed it on All Things Considered as "the most extenisve, most documented and mosturgent presentation." Siegel was happy, in that segment, to present Collie's accusations -- just not to question them or note the embarrassing realities of the lies. Strangely, while Siegel couldn't question any of the assertions, Democracy Now! (link has audio and video) -- covering the same segment with Phyllis Bennis, James Paul and As'ad Abu Khalil -- was able to and to note that how "much of Powell's presentation is impossible to verify." In fairness, the All Things Considered segment did not "a bunch of determined liars" -- however, that was the 'peace' voice (Jessica Tuchman Mathews) speaking of Iraqis.  Please note that JTM was their idea of 'peace' because she (a) hated Iraqis on air and (b) wasn't opposed to the idea of going to war with Iraq and just concerned herself with whether Colin Powell was really groovy or he-makes-her-panties-wet groovy. They also had time for Coward Daniel Schorr (no longer 'with us' and no loss there) to provide a commentary declaring it was time for those European countries who were enjoying "popularity," he insisted, because they were "thumbing their nose at a super power" (the US) needed to "consider the risks and the costs of letting America go it" alone and they just might regret "turning their backs on America."
 
The first part of the interview (which aired Wednesday) was embarrassing but Iraq didn't really factor in.  The second part aired yesterday.
 
 
In the interview, Gates explains he was always for the surge (and that he plans to write about what really took place on the Iraq Study Group he served on before becoming Secretary of Defense "and I will write about this later, but I was not the only one"). Siegel wanted to talk about the defense industry advertising on TV and in print in the DC area and Gates chuckled about how he believed the costs of that would show up "in one of our contracts" causing Siegel to laugh, "You'll end up paying for that ad is what you see.."  That's not funny nor is it accurate.  Gates doesn't "pay."  The American tax payers pay.  It's the American people's money.
 
And instead of asking about the 'surge,' why the hell wasn't Siegel asking about the realities of Iraq or does Siegel not pay attention to what actually happens in Iraq?  Siegel -- and All Things Considered -- bungled things (at best) in real time when they should have been investigating and informing the American people that there was no case for war on Iraq.  Eight years later, he wants to chuckle and laugh with Gates and present the notion that Iraq is somehow stable and things are groovy.  That this passes for journalism is the strongest argument for defunding NPR.
 
All Things Considered isn't the only pro-war outlet to be promoting the Iraq War these days.  There's also The New Republic which has been around since 1914 and has a long and embarrassing history that would make for an epic mini-series. Following 9-11, the center-left magazine became ever more War Hawkish.  And, as it did so, it lost more and more readers.  Thomas E. Ricks 'young thang' Spencer Ackerman worked for The New Republic back then (he was later fired) and Ackerman was among the staff pimping the Iraq War.  Among the staff?  Howard Kurtz (then at the Washington Post) reported June 19, 2004:
 
Ever since the New Republic broke with liberal orthodoxy by strongly supporting President Bush's war with Iraq, the magazine has been getting a steady stream of e-mails from readers demanding an apology.
Now the left-leaning weekly has admitted that it was wrong to have backed the war based on the administration's claims that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.
"We feel regret, but no shame. . . . Our strategic rationale for war has collapsed," says an editorial hammered out after a contentious, 3 1/2-hour editors' meeting.
"I wanted the editorial to be honest not just about the war and other people's mistakes but our mistakes," Editor Peter Beinart says. "We felt we had a responsibility to look in the mirror."
 
Pretty words from Petey but if they were at all truthful and represented the way the editors actually felt, T.A. Frank's hit piece would never have been published in 2005.  From Dave Zirin's article decrying Frank's attacks on the peace movement:
 
Author Tom Frank -- clearly from the Glass School of Journalism the New Republic has made famous -- described sitting in on an anti-war panel sponsored by the International Socialist Organization, the Washington Peace Center, the DC Anti-War Network and other groups.
After having heard the 100 plus attendees cheer sentiments like "Money for Jobs and Education Not For War and Occupation," Frank became so riled up, he unloaded a deranged harangue about the suffering he would like to rain upon people daring to organize against this war. After Stan Goff, a former Delta Forces soldier and current organizer for Military Families Speak Out, expressed sentiments like "We ain't never resolved nothing through an election," Frank's jag began. Clearly too doughy to do it himself, Frank started to fantasize about a Teutonic strongman who could shut Goff up.
Frank writes, "What I needed was a Republican like Arnold [Schwarzenegger] who would walk up to [Goff] and punch him in the face."
As the panel continued, every cheer and standing ovation seemed to set Frank deeper down a path of psychosis. After International Socialist Review editorial board member Sherry Wolf asserted that Iraqis had a "right" to rebel against occupation, Frank upped the ante in his efforts to intimidate anyone considering entry into the anti-war movement.
 
Were the editors serious -- and not just trying to revive their failing magazine -- in the spring of 2004, the start of 2005 would have been a lot different.  And some publications -- The Progressive or The Nation, for example -- may feel superior to The New Republic today.  They have no reason to.  Kat, Wally, Ava and I are speaking about the Iraq War to various groups probably 44 or more weeks a year.  And people sometimes ask why that is?  'Isn't the Iraq War over?' No, it's not.  'But Americans turned against the war.'  At one point they had. And it's doubtful there will be a signifcant change in the next five or so years.  But the revisionary tactics by War Hawks following Vietnam weren't interested in changing everyon's mind by 1980, they were laying the groundwork for the real revisionary techniques that would follow in the 80s.  And a truth that pollsters never like to admit, any poll with a strong response (oppose or support)?  It's not really accurate.  Let's say 63% of Americans felt the Iraq War was a mistake in 2007.  As much as 10% of that may not be a feeling.  As much as 10% of the respondents are not really following the issue.  What they're basing it on (true in any poll with strong support or strong opposition) is the cues, the cues in public, the cues from the media, the herd mentality.
 
In that environment, you can't be silent.  Unless you're trying to hand a victory to the War Hawks.  While The Nation and The Progressive are  silent about an ongoing war, The New Republic is always working it into columns.  Fouad Ajami's latest (published at midnight) is entitled "Robert Gates Is Right About Iraq We've made progress -- and we shouldn't remove all U.S. troops." And maybe the first question should be: Why is The New Republic publishing a member of the right-wing Hoover Institution?  The man's a moron and like most of the morons who were Academic War Hawks, he's with Johns Hopkins.  No where in the article is there any indication that Ajami has been repeatedly wrong on the Iraq War since it started.  And for a 21-year-old today, you're really expecting a lot if you think she or he is going to know who helped lie the US into war eight years ago.

In addition, there are people who are just desperate for the Iraq War to be acknowledged in any way or form.  By being silent you're helping to create the vacuum that the War Hawks will not shy from filling.  Meanwhile Emily Bourke (The World Today, Australia's ABC -- link has audio and transcript) notes a new study:
 
EMILY BOURKE: As Australia buries yet another one of its soldiers killed in the war in Afghanistan, a new survey has found most Australians and Americans think the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have not been worth it.

The research by the US Studies Centre in the University of Sydney has revealed that almost a decade after the September 11 terrorist attacks the subsequent military campaigns are not helping to win the war on terror.

The data shows the majority of Americans and Australians are suffering war on terror fatigue and they're questioning the cost in blood and treasure.
 

Protesting in Iraq

adam kokesh

Reminder, Iraq War veteran Adam Kokesh holds the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Dance Party tomorrow at noon. He will be in DC at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and solidarity events are taking place around the world -- click here for more.

That's the US. In Baghdad, protests are taking place right now.

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Youth activists and others (including The Great Iraqi Revolution community) are gathered in Tahrir Square to honor the detainees lost in the so-called 'justice' system in Iraq. People whose families have no idea where they are or if they are still alive. And, specifically, to show solidarity with the four arrested last Friday. Last Friday was "False Promises Friday." The Great Iraqi Revolution noted the four arrested: "THE 4 YOUNG ACTIVISTS WHO WERE ARRESTED TODAY BY QASSIM ATTA AND TAKEN TO A PLACE UNKNOWN - 27.5.2011 - THEIR NAMES ARE: JIHAD JALEEL, ALI ABDUL KHALIQ, MOUAYED AL TAYEB AND AHMED AL BAGHDADI. We pray God to have them released very soon."

They also noted of Friday's Baghdad protest -- or in response to it, a smear campaign is being launched on TV, "In the serial of attempting to bad mouth and blacken the Tahrir Square protestors and demonstrators, Qassim Atta and the Iraqiya air photos of one of the detained activists in the Protests and accuse him of several crimes, they then proceed to air a film of a crime whose perpetrators are known to all and sundry, and in the same film some hooded men are heard to accuse that the activist is the person who committed the crime!" And the assault on protesters continued Saturday. Aswat al-Iraq reported:


An eye witness said that a military force raided an NGO, known as Where is My Right, and arrested 11 persons, including its secretary general, in suspicion for their relationship with the organizers of Tahreer Square demonstrations.
"Four Hummer military vehicles and two 4-wheel drive cars surrounded the organization premises in Maidan Square, in the center of Baghdad, where they searched it and destroyed its computers," the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
On the other hand, an activist said on the Facebook page for the Tahreer Square demonstrations, that the organization is an NGO that participated in organizing the demonstrations.
The arrested persons were meeting to discuss how to release the four activists who were arrested last Friday.


Yesterday Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both issued statements decrying the government crackdown on protest and free speech in Iraq.

On the four arrrested last Friday, Raheem Salman and Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) speak with the families of the activists:

"I know about Ahmed that he loves his country, he loves freedom," said Alaa, the father of a detainee who uses the pseudonym Ahmed Baghdadi. The father, who asked that his last name not be used, expressed frustration at the lack of information about the detentions.
"I don't know where to go, whom to ask," he said. "Are our sons really criminals? .... Even if they have fake identities, why can't we see them? This is not a threat to the state's security."


Meanwhile Jack Healy and Michael S. Schmidt (New York Times) note, "Rights groups said the people detained had been denied access to lawyers and visits with their families, and criticized the arrests as a ploy to stifle any dissent in the streets, even if it was peaceful and relatively low-key."


Finally, Eli Lake (Washington Times) reports on an emerging scandal involving the US State Dept and your right to know:

The State Department is blocking inspectors from the U.S. government’s independent auditor for Iraqi reconstruction from conducting an assessment of the department’s multibillion-dollar effort to train Iraq's police.

Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, discussed the standoff with the State Department in an interview this week.

“We have a long history of auditing the police training in Iraq,” Mr. Bowen said. “It is simply a misapprehension to conclude that our jurisdiction only applies to bricks-and-mortar reconstruction. To the contrary, Congress has charged us with overseeing the expenditure of funds in Iraq.”


That's it, the laptop battery is about to die, sorry.




The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.




































Saturday's Thomas Jefferson Memorial Dance Party

adam kokesh

Iraq War veteran Adam Kokesh holds the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Dance Party tomorrow at noon. He will be in DC at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and solidarity events are taking place around the world -- click here for more. On last night's Adam vs. the Man, Adam spoke with Medea Benjamin and Tighe Barry. In a column, Medea explains what happened last weekend:


It was Memorial Day weekend. My partner Tighe Barry and I were on our way to New York, but we decided to make a quick trip to the Memorial to support the dancers. When we got there, two park policemen were talking to the group. We moved closer to hear what they were saying and overheard someone ask the police how they define dancing. Tighe put his arms around my waist and started swaying, illustrating how hard it is to define what, precisely, is dancing.
Suddenly, to our utter amazement, we were set upon by the police. They yanked us apart, handcuffed us and shoved us on the ground. That’s when three members of the group put on their headsets and started boogying. The police went wild, bodyslamming, chokeholding, and jumping on top of them. The police cleared out the entire Memorial as if they were protecting the tourists from some kind of terrorist threat, then threw us in a paddywagon and hauled us off to jail. Three hours later, after mug shots and fingerprinting, we were charged with “dancing in a restricted area” and cited to come back to court.

And here's Adam addressing the assault he experienced (body slammed to a marble floor, choke hold, etc.).

kokesh

Again, the Dance Party is tomorrow.

We need a truth party and it's a topic we'll take up in today's snapshot if there's room. Maybe not so much a "truth party" as a "WAKE UP!" party? We've noted for over four years now that the War Hawks do not give up. They push and push and pimp the Iraq War. And while they do that, one time war opponents walk away and abidcate not only their responsibility but the entire discussion. Some of the people whose heads should be hanging in shame have made it into print, online and on radio in the last few days to promote the illegal war all over again. And they are allowed to seize control of the conversation when the likes of The Nation, The Progressive, Pacifica Radio, Democracy Now, et al have nothing to say on the Iraq War. Their silence allows revisionary history to take place. Their silence allows these people who lied and whored in 2002 and 2003 to escape judgment and consequences and to trick a generation that's come of age during the illegal war and may or may not be aware of its roots in deception, let alone who the big liars were.


The following community sites -- plus Antiwar.com -- updated last night and this morning:



David Bacon's latest book is Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press) which won the CLR James Award. We'll close with this from Bacon's "The Rebirth of Solidarity on the Border" (Americas Program):


Editor's Note: This is the third article of a series on border solidarity by journalist and immigration activist David Bacon. This article and subsequent stories were originally published in the Institute for Transnational Social Change's report Building a Culture of Cross-Border Solidarity. To download a PDF of the entire report, visit the Americas Program website.


The growth of cross-border solidarity today is taking place at a time when U.S. penetration of Mexico is growing - economically, politically, and even militarily. While the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico has it's own special characteristics, it is also part of a global system of production, distribution and consumption. It is not just a bilateral relationship.

Jobs go from the U.S. and Canada to Mexico in order to cut labor costs. But from Mexico those same jobs go China or Bangladesh or dozens of other countries, where labor costs are even lower. As important, the threat to move those jobs, experienced by workers in the U.S. from the 1970s onwards, are now common in Mexico. Those threats force concessions on wages. In Sony's huge Nuevo Laredo factory, for instance, that threat was used to make workers agree to an indefinite temporary employment status, even though Mexican law prohibited it.

Multiple production locations undermine unions' bargaining leverage, since action by workers in a single workplace can't shut down production for the entire corporation. The UAW, for instance, was beaten during a strike at Caterpillar in large part because even though the union could stop production in the U.S., production in Mexico continued. Grupo Mexico can use profits gained in mining operations in Peru to subsidize the costs of a strike in Cananea.

The privatization of electricity in Mexico will not just affect Mexicans. Already plants built by Sempra Energy and Enron in Mexico are like maquiladoras, selling electricity into the grid across the border. If privatization grows, that will have an impact on US unions and jobs, giving utility unions in the U.S. a reason to help Mexican workers resist it. This requires more than solidarity between unions facing the same employer. It requires solidarity in resisting the imposition of neoliberal reforms like privatization and labor law reform as well.

At the same time, the concentration of wealth has created a new political situation in both countries. In Mexico, the PRI functioned as a mediator between organized workers and business. PRI governments used repression to stop the growth of social movements outside the system it controlled. But the government also used negotiations in the interest of long-term stability. The interests of the wealthy were protected, but some sections of the population also received social benefits, and unions had recognized rights. In 1994, for instance, the government put leaders of Mexico City's bus union SUTAUR in prison. But then it proceeded to negotiate with them while they were in jail.

The victory of Vicente Fox and the PAN in 2000 created a new situation, in which the corporate class, grown rich and powerful because of earlier reforms, no longer desired the same kind of social pact or its political intermediaries. The old corporatist system, in which unions had a role, was no longer necessary. Meanwhile employers and the government have been more willing to use force. Unions like the Mexican Electricians Union (SME) and miners face not just repression, but destruction.

In the U.S. a similar process took place during the years after the Vietnam War, when corporations made similar decisions. After the Federal government broke the air traffic controller's (PATCO) strike, the use of strikebreakers became widespread. Corporations increasingly saw even business unions as unnecessary for maintaining social peace and continued profits. Union organizing became a kind of labor warfare. A whole industry of union busters appeared, making the process set up by U.S. labor law in the 1930s much less usable by workers seeking to organize.







The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.











thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends